Saint Barbara of Nicomedia was one of the most popular patron saints of medieval France, as witnessed by the multiple literary texts of the time dedicated to her. According to an eastern legend spread by the Byzantine hagiographer Simeon the Metaphrast, St. Barbara, the daughter of a pagan named Dioscurus, became a Christian against her father's will. As punishment, she was locked in a tower and sentenced to death by beheading. Barbara is said to have died at the hands of her own father at the turn of the 4th century, during the persecution of Christians under Emperor Maximian (Papaioannou 2017, 154-181). In thirteenth-century Europe, the life of Saint Barbara was disseminated thanks to The Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine; new hagiographical, liturgical and literary texts based on it began to develop and appear. The latter include dramatic texts, i.e. mystery plays.
The texts I analyse here are three mystery plays: a five-day mystery play from the Loire region (15th/16th century), a two-day mystery from Paris (early 16th century), and a Breton mystery from the latter half of the 16th century. Barbara is one of the few female saints dedicated so much attention to in dramatic texts. Mario Longtin, an expert on mystery plays dedicated to this saint, claims that Saint Barbara was the only central female figure in medieval theatre (Longtin 2001, 35). All the above dramatic texts are very extensive and focus primarily on the conversion and martyrdom of the holy woman. Although the role of St. Barbara as a healer and intercessor is not their main interest, in each of the texts we find scenes depicting miracles of healing through her agency. We witness in them a concrete process of asking for healing and its spectacular accomplishment. Interestingly, in all the three mysteries we deal with identical illnesses and a close relationship between the healing of the soul and of the body.
In the mystery plays we read about the blind man, the deaf man and the paralytic. All of them, having learned that Barbara's soul was taken to Heaven, want to be healed by her before her body is buried in the chapel dedicated to her. In the two-day mystery we learn from the conversation between the paralytic and the blind man what their specific ailments are and what they expect from the saint. To request a miracle of healing does not seem complicated; its future beneficiaries do not need to perform any strenuous penitential practices. The sole condition for the healing is to approach and touch the body of the martyr and recite a short prayer. The mystery plays place great emphasis on contact with the saint through touch, which has the power of spectacular healing. Saint Barbara does not perform miracles at a distance and therefore will and prayer alone are not enough.
There may be three reasons for this depiction of the miracle in the texts under analysis. The first may be the close connection with the cult of St. Barbara's relics. After being cured, the men erect a chapel in Barbara's honour, in which her body is ceremoniously laid to rest. Thus, they create a place of worship for the saint, a place where her relics are venerated according to the medieval custom of erecting a church or chapel (Ohler 1994). The second reason may be the desire to portray the spectacular nature of the miracle of healing. What was least expected, abrupt and improbable was considered a miracle, an agency of the supernatural world. Thus, the touching of the body of Saint Barbara by a terminally ill person and their immediate healing was a tell-tale sign of a miracle. The third reason for this particular presentation of the healing process is the specificity of the dramatic text. Everything had to be presented in one scene, within a short time frame. A spectacular presentation of a complete and immediate recovery of eyesight or hearing also seems more attractive to the audience and easier to portray.
The five-day mystery, too, features the motif of healing mortal wounds inflicted in a war and the resurrection of the dead. These episodes go beyond mere healing and show the even greater power of Saint Barbara's mediation; not only can she ask God to cure a specific disease, but also bring the dead back to life. The mortally wounded and the dead are brought to the place where she is buried by their families and friends. The resurrected soldiers, as soon as they are back on their feet, want to glorify Barbara and find their wounds gone (Longtin 2001, 262).
In the same mystery play we find an interesting motif of healing from mental illness or deliverance from the devil. Since in the Middle Ages it was difficult to distinguish one from the other, usually anyone out of their mind was considered possessed. The text devotes a great deal of attention to four pagans. They are referred to by name: the deaf Linart, the blind Maliverné, the paralytic Malnoury, and the madman Briffault. The first three decide to journey to the saint's body, but Briffault refuses to go with them. Linart asserts that he will certainly receive the grace of health in the holy place where the body of the martyr is laid. However, this does not convince Briffault, which is why the other three carry him away by force, against his will (Longtin 2001, 193). Although the men to be healed are pagans, they seek the help, appearing to believe that saints have the power to heal the sick. It is noteworthy that the one suffering from mental illness or possession and most averse to the use of supernatural help is healed first. Briffault is healed and gives a monologue that points to the spectacular nature of the miracle he has experienced. He also mentions that his soul was in a demon’s shackles. On being healed, he regains consciousness to the extent that he realises that he has been fighting with and insulting his companions (Longtin 2001, 196). Thus, Barbara not only cleansed the possessed man's soul of satanic influences and restored his capacity to control his mind and body, but also allowed him to remember all the evil he had done before. This complete recovery of memory and consciousness allowed him to feel remorse and demonstrate sorrow for his sins. He gives thanks for his healing and refers to Scripture; we see that he gained the consciousness of a Christian and naturally acquired a knowledge of the tenets of the faith.
In the two-day mystery play, we witness a scene in which Barbara, while still alive, casts out the devil from the soul of a prostitute sent to defile the martyr's soul and pure thoughts. The woman of easy virtue tries to disgrace Barbara in every possible way, praising her charms and wishing to lead her down the path of unchastity. In the end, however, the woman succumbs to Barbara's influence and, drawn by her example, she converts and her sinful soul is completely healed. However, the healing of the soul of the sinner does not happen as quickly and immediately as the healing of Briffault. It is a long process and calls for specific action on Barbara’s side. In this case, the saint must wait until the sinner shows sorrow for her sins. The saint casts out this devil and punishes him, in a rather comical way at that: having grabbed a stick, she places the evil spirit over her knee and beats him on the buttocks. After analysing both of these cases, we can see that as far as a strictly physical illness is concerned, the sick person may not control their body, but does exercise control over their will and mind. In the case of mental illness or possession of the soul by the devil, the person loses all control over their mind and is completely subject to an external force. According to Pierre-Henri Ortiz, in the Middle Ages mental illness stands on the boundary between body and spirit, and it is therefore necessary to treat one and the other (Ortiz 2013). However, supernatural assistance is always needed to deal with such problems.
Although after each miraculous healing the beneficiaries of the miracles thank Barbara first, ultimately their prayer of thanksgiving and gratitude is always directed to Christ. The content of all three mystery plays invariably refers to Jesus Christ, the primary miracle-worker and healer. This theme is most developed in the Breton mystery. At the very beginning, Dioscurus locks his daughter in the tower, not as punishment for her conversion, but out of jealousy. The girl is well aware of this and therefore, when she wants to be baptised, she decides to simulate illness. She dispatches her servants to the philosopher Origen who sends the clergyman Valentinus, who secretly baptises Barbara. Unexpectedly, her father enters and is furious to see a man next to his daughter. She tries to placate him and explains that she felt bad and sent for a doctor. The worried father asks if she was given proper help. Barbara replies that she has the best doctor in the world, who has completely cured her. Of course, the father does not understand that Barbara has in mind Jesus Christ, the supernatural physician. At the same time, her simulated illness becomes a metaphor for the state of an unbaptised soul (Ernault 1888, 45). This scene is symbolic of the theology of early Latin Christianity, with an impact on medieval Christianity. Conversion is treated as a return to complete health, while each sin is a poisoning or infirmity of the soul (Sigal 2012).
In the above excerpts of the mystery plays dedicated to Barbara, we have seen her heal paralytics, blind and deaf people, and madmen; she has also brought the dead back to life. According to Jean Delumeau, in the healing scenes in medieval literature we see those suffering from the aforementioned illnesses not because such patients were most prevalent in the Middle Ages, but because these conditions have great symbolic significance (Delumeau 1989, 206). The intercession of the saints continues the miracles of Jesus Christ. Healthy eyes can see the truth, healthy ears can hear the word of God, and paralytics and the resurrected can praise God and His saints for the rest of their lives. The miracles of healing taking place at the martyr's relics were truly spectacular as they were sudden and totally changed the person's condition. It should be remembered that each such miracle was meant to lead to the healing of the soul, to the casting out of the devil from it and to the deracination of sins. Without doubt, then, familiar with the above mystery plays, we can call St. Barbara the healer of the body and of the soul.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Buhez Sante Barba, and Emile Ernault. 1888. Le mystère de sainte Barbe, tragédie bretonne. Paris: Thorin.
Longtin, Mario. 1997. Édition du Mystère de sainte Barbe en deux journées BN Yf 1652 et 1651. Ottawa: National Library of Canada.
Longtin, Mario. 1999. Edition du "Mystère de sainte Barbe en deux journées", BN Yf 1652 et 1651. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International.
Longtin, Mario. 2001. Édition critique de la cinquième journée du mystère de Sainte Barbe en cinq journées. Ph.D. University of Edinburgh.
Papaioannou, Stratis. 2017. Christian novels from the Menologion of Symeon Metaphrastes. Cambridge, MS: Harvard University Press.
Secondary Sources
Delumeau, Jean. 1989. Rassurer et protéger le sentiment de sécurité dans l'Occident d'autrefois. Paris: Fayard.
Ohler, Norbert. 1994. Pilgerleben im Mittelalter zwischen Andacht und Abenteuer. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder.
Pierre-Henri Ortiz. 2013. ‘Le Christ médecin et le poison du Diable’. Cahiers Mondes Anciens 4: 1-13. http://journals.openedition.org/chrhc/2458.
Sigal, Pierre-André. 2012. L'homme et le miracle dans la France médiévale: XIe-XIIe siècle. Paris: Éditions du Cerf.
Magdalena Buszka is a graduate in Romance philology and a PhD student at the School of Languages and Literatures at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland). Magdalena is interested in medieval hagiographic literature and the relationship between literature and the mentality of medieval society.
Email: magdalena.buszka@amu.edu.pl